[Vwdiesel] Injection Pump talk ---( for Pump Gang mostly )

[William A. Thompson]

----- Original Message -----
From: "H . Hagar." <h_hagar at prcn.org>
To: <vwdiesel at vwfans.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 21, 2005 9:10 AM
Subject: [Vwdiesel] Injection Pump talk ---( for
Pump Gang mostly )


>William A Thompson   --tell your Boeing  friend
that you know an OLD geezer up north
>getting 78 miles +  to a gallon Imp  on a Rabbit
(1984)   while a barrel is 60 US ?
>And that he finds a Rabbit a totally reliable
piece of transportatation.   Better than
>some Boeing Planes I know about.   ----HE may
soon regret that he did not keep
>the VW Diesels.  -----The way Boeing is loosing
orders these days.

    ...Bill
Yeah ... this Boeing engineer friend of mine had
ignored me when I first had gotten hired and
needed to find someone to ride to work with. I was
driving 100+ miles a day in a gas guzzlein' 4600
lb ballistic missle Fury station wagon with a 360
in it. I was spending $360 to $400 a month just on
gas. When I approached this guy who lived down the
road from me ... offering to pay all his driving
to work expenses ... he kinda' looked down his
nose at me ... me being a lowly aircraft mechanic
and he being an Q.C. engineer and all.

His brushing me off was hard for me to swallow. I
had befrended this guy when he was newly assigned
to my 777 wing join tool (shop). Some of the other
mechanics ... being younger, less prideful of
their work, and dumber ... were trying to "pull
fast" ones on him with regard to the quality of
their work (he was Q.C. at the time and inspected
work done before it was signed off "good to go"
for the record). In order to ensure quality work
and to keep him out of trouble ... I had given him
the heads up on these guys and the many "fast
ones" they try to pull on Q.C. inspectors.

Some months later ... after I had bought my first
rabbit ... '84 2 door N/A 5 speed ... reliable and
50 MPG US at 70 MPH hiway speeds ... and reduced
my fuel bill to about $40 a month ... he wrecked
his small pickup and approached me for rides to
work.

It did stick in my craw ... I almost gave him the
brush off as he had done to me. Struggleing
mightily ... I prevailed over the dark side of my
natural human urges ... and he paid my getting to
work expenses for many months.

He got jazzed at the cheap $40 a month in diesel
fuel ... but wanted a bit more luxury. I secretly
felt the engineer in him needed more status when
he decided to get into a Mercedes diesel. Of
coarse to get a good price on it he found one that
needed some TLC ... but once he had gotten it into
daily driving status he decided he had been
putting too much money into it and sold it to get
into Rabbits.

He found a couple that needed some of that TLC ...
and a few for parts. He got 3 of them in daily
running condition before the solinoid hassle on
one and the banjo washer on the other. After he
sold the whole kit and kabootle to me ... I have
only had to replace the peddle bracket (due to the
typical water leaks pooling in a weld area of the
bracket) and seal the windshield on one ...
replace intermidiate shaft seals on another ... go
thru seals and replace that washer shim in the
pump, and an alternator on the third. Again ...
thanks for the washer Hagar.

Not bad for 20+ year old cars. they all get 50 MPG
US on the hiway and no one but my sons and I ever
touch 'em with a tool.

I find these Rabbits to be much like any other
car. They have their personality that you have to
get used to ... querks like any other car. I
simply needed to become familliar with them if I
am going to drive 'em daily. Once you know these
cars ... as with any other ... the little
maintenence they need is faily predictable.

I find that I thoroughly enjoy ... whatever
efforts I put into EASY to do maintenance ...
which results in 50 MPG from these older cars ...
that are exempt from smog control tests ... have
no computers to deal with ... have decent
availability of reasonablly priced parts ... have
the cheapest insurance rates of about any car ...
and is not a chop shop target for theft.

>Hagar
>Rabbit reliable transportation ?  --YES YES
YES --- BUT   reliable Electrically    ?
>NO NO NO.

    ...Bill
Electrically reliable? I'd still say so regardless
of a few characteristic "problems". I find that
the electrical gremlins are no worse than other
cars. As long as you keep your grounds clean and
the inside of the car dry ... it's no worse than
any other that I have owned.

>Hagar
>I find that my Expertise  --fits hand in glove
with Val Christian,James Hansen,Sandy Cameron
>Roger Brown,Loren,   and more.    ----To me this
exercise is mostly a matter of
>FUN------sort of like Rubiks cube. ---------BUT I
do understand that some of you
>may depend on a Rabbit to survive ---keeping the
Wife and Kids happy.

    ...Bill
I have always considered it fun and required that
I understand the workings of my transportation and
see to the jobs being done properly. Something
about trying to get to my port of call while
heading to Vienam for the Marine Corps ... and
parts falling off in the middle of summer in the
middle of the desert ... after trusting a garage
to do some work ... and another garage raking me
over the coals to repair it. Now ... the only time
anyone else touchs my car because of my lack of
specialized tools  ... they have to agree to my
close supervision and oversight while I am
standing right behind them as they are doing the
job. I even enjoy such things as backing them down
when they try to talk me into replacing struts
because of oil in the housings just after I
replaced them and needed an alighnment ... before
I got the tools to do even that.

    ...Bill